The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 1, July, 1862Various
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 1, July, 1862
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
It was with thoughts like these running in our heads, that we found
ourselves, at about half-past four o'clock, on a dark, cloudy, windy
morning, March fifteenth, 18--, rolling slowly along the uneven road
that leads from Athens to the Piraeus. Our guide was Dhemetri, of
course--who ever heard of a guide that was not named Dhemetri? An
excellent guide he was, too, never missing his way, answering correctly
all our questions to which he knew the answers, and fabricating answers
to the rest as near the truth as his moderate knowledge of antiquity
would permit; providing us sedulously with creature comforts, and
besieging our hearts daily with delicious omelettes and endless strings
of figs. Arrived at the Piraeus, we were transferred, with beds, cooking
apparatus, and baggage, to the Lloyd steamer, whose cloud of steam and
smoke was seen dimly in the gray morning. At a reasonable time after the
hour advertised, we sailed into the open bay, passed near enough the
island of Ægina to see the ruined temple on one of its hights--almost to
count its columns--then coasted along the rugged shores of Argolis,
which we eagerly studied with the aid of a map. Here was the peninsula
Methana, and half hiding it, the island Calauria, where Demosthenes put
an end to his life, once the seat of a famous Amphictyony. Then the bold
promontory which shuts in the fertile valley of Troezer, then the
territory of Hermione, stretching between the mountains and the sea. We
touched at Hydhra, famed in the history of the Greek Revolution, a
strange, rambling town, picturesquely situated on a cleft in a bare
island of gray rock, and shortly after at Spetzia, a town of much the
same character; then toward night sailed into the beautiful bay of
Napoli, or Nauplia, once the capital of Greece.
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